


The Rock Collection

by Superellysan



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: A rock collection, Gen, Two dorks bonding over rocks, rocks, that's really all there is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 10:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14163306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Superellysan/pseuds/Superellysan
Summary: "Rock... collection..."Well, they were certainly rocks. A lot of rocks, in fact. All of them spread across the top of X’s desk and spilling into the desk drawers.What Zero wanted to know was why. So he asked.“Because I like them.”Oh, of course.-------------------A silly little idea I had a while back that I finally just sat down and wrote.





	The Rock Collection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyAzure17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAzure17/gifts).



“Hey X, I need those…”  
He stopped in the door, staring at X’s desk.  
“What is that?”  
X glanced up at him from his desk chair. “My rock collection?”  
“Rock… collection…”  
Well, they were certainly rocks. A lot of rocks, in fact. All of them spread across the top of X’s desk and spilling into the desk drawers.  
What Zero wanted to know was _why._ So he asked.  
“Because I like them.”  
Oh, of course.

“I _assumed_ that, X,” he irritably replied, “But usually when people collect rocks, it’s things like geodes or crystals, and not…”  
He picked up a grainy gray stone with jagged edges and stared it down for a second.  
“… concrete?”  
Yep. All his sensors said it was concrete. The kind you’d find in a sidewalk, in fact.  
X smiled at him, a smile that was sincere and somehow expectant.  
He sighed.  
“Why do you have a chunk of concrete?”  
His friend’s eyes lit up a bit, and he held his hand out. Zero placed the concrete chunk in his palm, already anticipating the bizarre answer to come.

X gazed at the chunk fondly, rubbing a thumb over one of its rough edges. “Do you want to hear the story behind this one?”  
“…Story?”  
“Yeah,” he said, lifting the stone toward the ceiling lights as if it had anything to catch the rays with. “Story.”  
X opened up another drawer in his desk, swept a few of the rocks littering the desk-top into it, and then patted the newly cleared, yet still dusty, spot.  
Zero eyed his friend, before hopping onto the desk and settling into the spot. “Hit me.”  
“A little girl gave it to me.”  
“…. And?”  
“And that’s it!” X laughed.

Zero stared at him.  
“And you kept it?”  
“Well yeah,” X replied, placing the chunk alongside the rest of his collection with care.  
“…why?”  
“Why? Hmmm…”

X leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes in thought.  
“I guess… because she was so enthusiastic about giving it to me,” he slowly said, a warm grin playing at his lips. “I was at the park, and a group of kids came up and asked me to play with them. After that, this one little girl in the group gave me that concrete piece. She said that it was special, because it has a colorful stripe in it.”  
Zero glanced down at it, and sure enough there was a faint line of iridescent dust running one of its edges, something he’d missed before.  
“And that’s why I kept it.”  
Looking back, Zero caught the happy glow on his friend’s face mere seconds before he turned his eyes upon him.  
Without thinking, Zero picked up another rock. “What about this one?”  
A smile. “I found it my first time at the beach. I thought it was amazing how the sea could make a pebble so smooth.”  
He picked up another. “And this?”  
“Abel gardens. Dr. Cain picked it up to show me all the bugs crawling underneath it.”  
And another. “This one?”  
“A pretty geode I found in a farmer’s market. The shop-owner said it brings tranquility in stressful times.”  
Zero’s hands blindly searched for another. His fingers met with something rough, and he picked it up.  
“This?”

X’s smile fell a second as he caught sight of the stone in Zero’s hand. It was a yellowish-orange, rough, with tiny pieces falling off of it. X slowly leaned forward again, reaching his hand out for the stone.

As Zero watched, X clasped the stone in his palm, slowly brought it to his face, and smiled. This smile was more wistful than the others, and his eyes shone with remembrance.  
“Ah... this one,” he sighed, rolling it gently between his fingers. “This came from the dig site where Dr. Cain found me. It’s the first in my collection.” He laughed. “Not a very glamourous first, but-”  
“It’s beautiful.”

The surprised look on X’s face failed to register with Zero for a few seconds, until it suddenly stopped failing to.  
“I mean-” he quickly backtracked, cursing himself for saying that out loud. “It’s awesome that you have a piece of where you came from, that you know and… uh…”  
His mind was as blank as his friend’s expression, and he quickly hopped off the desk and headed for the door, before a yank at his arm stopped him. Looking back, he was struck by the grateful look in his friend’s now moist eyes.  
“Thanks for hearing me out, Zero. Here.”

Zero felt X slip something into his palm. Zero glanced down.  
In his hand was the yellow sandstone.  
“Keep it,” his friend said, and before Zero could protest added “I have 3 other stones from there as well, so I won’t miss it. Just… promise to take good care of it, alright?”

No words came through the knot in his throat, so Zero just nodded.  
X smiled. “Sorry to keep you. I’ll send the files you need as soon as I can.”  
Zero nodded again, softly curled his hand around the precious stone, and left.

* * *

 

Man, were the council meetings boring, but as an A-rank hunter, he was required to be there. Go figure.

Zero leaned against the wall and sighed, the all-important conversation of hunter statistics and political whatevers between Commander Sigma and the ponce they’d assigned to head chair sailing over his head. He saw the Commander’s hands beginning to ball, and already knew they weren’t getting the budget raise they desperately needed. Or, rather, the government _access_ they needed to actually _do_ anything. They had money and technology for days thanks to Dr. Cain.

His foot began its tap of impatience as his eyes wandered the room. Boring white walls, unimpressive chairs that no one used because the council never thought to make chairs for reploids, a planter beside him that housed a plastic tree, and the pebbles that-  
The pebbles that lined the fake tree caught his eye. All of them were smooth, rounded, probably artificially made, and black with swirls of iridescence made to catch the light. There was one that he saw, though, that had somehow cracked and deformed. It sat at the top of the planter, its warping causing it to look like a void between its more prominent neighbors.

Zero quickly glanced around the room, before grabbing the warped stone and hiding it in his palm.

* * *

 

X had been flipping through an interesting novel when Zero knocked at the door. 

“Come in!”  
As the door slid open, he fiddled with the pebble in his hand.  
 “Hey, X.”  
X closed his book and looked at him over his shoulder. “Hey, Zero. What’s up?”  
Zero grinned.  
“Want to hear a story?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of updates and fics. School's a month out from ending so all the teachers are kicking our asses with homework and tests, so I haven't had a lot of time to write. Case and point, I wrote this fic in about an hour and didn't do any editing on it, so it'll probably read a bit rougher than some of my more recent fics. Sorry ;.n.  
> And to Azure, I gift this rushed little thing to you for firstly inspiring the idea and secondly for all the help you've given me in becoming a writer. Thank you so much ;u; (Expect more when school lets out for summer >:D)  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! Leave a kudos or a comment if you did, and let me know what you thought!  
> I hope you have a wonderful day! And happy (almost) Easter! (or whatever you celebrate!)


End file.
